PTARMAK Interview

Interview – 

JR Crosby, Creative Director, PTARMAK.

How do you ensure the integrity of your work?

Well here are 8 things that help set the stage for a consistent quality of work: 

(note: this list applies more to teams of designers vs. freelancers or artists)

1. Obviously, you need a standard of intent. Are you aiming for ‘great’ design or successful design? Work only with folks who share that viewpoint. “Both” is not a viable option as an approach.

2. Surround yourself with good people who view design as a lifestyle (vs. a career).

3. Develop a kit of briefing tools that (actually) yield valuable context and direction, and (actually) evaluate your work against it. 

4. Select the right clients. You need a standard and you need to stick to it. It’s ok to say no on principle OR gut… but do so graciously.

5. Establish and defend a culture of trust and validation – it’s paramount for productive internal critiques and a collaborative process with your clients.

6. Stay teachable & be receptive. The idea is more important than the ideator. Ideas should be group property and everyone is qualified to contribute.

7. Decide which hill(s) you’re willing to die on. If you wait to consider this until the heat of a disagreement with the client, you’ll either fold or risk a rash decision. It’s obviously a good idea if your client knows where your flexibility stops before you begin.

8. Don’t show work that lacks integrity. And quit taking yourself so seriously.

What are your favourite aspects of the design process?

I don’t know where I’m headed here - but I’ll start by stating the thing I love most about the act of designing. I’m all about the exaltation and humiliation of discovery. It’s a spiritual experience for me.

In the design process, I’ve found two things that really fertilize discovery; observation and intuition. Observation is great. It’s always honest and informative. But my favourite aspect of the process is the role of intuition. Sometimes it’s the lock. Sometimes it’s the ignition. Usually, it’s the key.

The interesting thing about intuition is that, when properly filtered, it makes our discoveries hauntingly familiar, in a very personal way. It’s a key informer to the process but it biases our solutions as designers. It exists prior to creation, and still it offers the highest creative reward. Fulfilment. A taste of creative freedom. I think that’s beautiful. 

However, it’s as important to challenge intuition as it is to give it air. If intuition is misappropriated for selfish gain or overindulged for personal expression it becomes a trap door to the process. Intuition can be a tyrant. But I’m not sure there’s a creative force that’s more critical to design.

Ok, I just have to add… I also love those epiphanic moments when some incredible idea (finally) leaps forth from somewhere deep in our right lobes. It’s the idea all other ideas were suffocating and it comes floating on a stream of serotonin. You know… the idea. “YEHSSS!’, we shout, triumphantly… ‘dude, that’s IT!” Frantically, we look around for someone to share the moment with. We drop our pencils or Wacom™ pens – maybe take a victory lap around the studio. We’re so excited to make it real… to give it life! Those innocent seconds are the greatest of our careers. If we’re lucky, we have a few of them throughout the course of each project. I try to relish in them. They’re usually followed by two panic strickening realizations that mean hard labor. What if it’s been done before? What if they don’t go for it? That’s when the really good work begins.

Was it a desire of yours from the start to find and run your own studio?

Yes and no, not exactly. As a youngster, I often dreamt of owning my own shop ‘one day.’ I talked about doing it. I came up with names and logos. But my plans had no plan whatsoever. I daydreamed in escape from any real opportunity. I ‘paid my dues’ to avoid risk. Like most twentysomething creatives, I was chock full of naiveté and wanderlust – driven by boundless energy to ferret out ‘corporate’ injustices, and passionate about my own theories (i.e. oversimplifications) on cures for the common client. 

Looking back, I realize those dreams were simply my own misappropriated desire for creative freedom. Owning and operating a business didn’t interest me until I understood what it meant. Specifically, not until I saw the opportunity (or need) for a unique business structure… An operating model adapted to the specific needs of small and mid-sized creative shops. The idea seemed like a suitable experiment. Enter » the corporate collaborative… and the birth of what we affectionately refer to as Ptarmak, Uncorporated.